Sunday Afternoon Ninja's

 Nothing much to say about this....they just decided to be Ninja's.  So...there you go :)  I love these boys. Luke's doing his "Eagle Kick" and Kade's doing...some rad move with ninja face.

They're sporting a weapon of choice around here. The vicious "sock-in-a-sock"  It's pretty lethal.

I was taking a picture of Kaden with his 'spy face' and luke surprised him with an attack....

 Luke wanted to "identity" Kade while he was getting his picture taken. I'm pretty sure that's code for "be seen sneakily in the background watching...."

 And now Kade "identity" Luke.  Watch out spies of the world!

Rhett woke up in the middle and joined us.

Kade was the ninja of Intelligence, Luke was the ninja of Emotion, and Rhett was the ninja of Willpower.  (Per Kade's ninja-passing-out-ary)

Rhett's Ninja hands.

Valentines 2012

VALENTINES DAY 2012

On Monday Jess got his first acceptance letters for Law School (which he's been waiting for, for FOREVER)  he was really happy about the schools and it was a HUGE relief for him!  So with that AND getting to shave his head--he was on cloud nine even before we started our weekend!

So Jess has been working nights since January, his nights off are Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.  SO, we took a weekend from the 14th-15th as a last hooray before this new baby comes!  It was sooo fun!

We started our day off by saying goodbye to the kiddos on the bus and dropping off Rhett to our friend Jessica.  Then we drove to Atlanta and went to a session at the temple.  So nice!  Love that.  After we went  and got some food, and stopped at a cute little chocolate shop to get dessert. It was so fun to see eveyone in the shop all happy and getting chocolates for the ones they love.  (mmmmmm....I can't express how much I love chocolate!  It was a great place to be).

We checked into our hotel--which by the way we got a GREAT deal on by going through Hotwire.  (I was looking on Expedia first and the same hotel with a smaller bed was $100 more then what we paid through Hotwire--woo woo! I LOVE good deals!)

So...the main reason for going out to Atlanta was to hit the Melting Pot--it's a fondue restaurant that we've heard great things about......so...about me loving a great deal....it was okay. I mean we both thought the food was really good.  But for the price (it was a set menu for Valentines day so I'm not sure what normal prices were) it was just fine. 

Then we went back to our awesome deal hotel, and watched a show called, In Time--which we really liked.  And fell asleep in our giant king size bed and slept in till....7:50...(just couldn't sleep past that time---what do you do.)

It was  really fun and nice to just be with Jess.  I love that man!  We sang loud in the car, laughed a ton, talked without any interruptions, and just enjoyed each other.

It was an awesome Valentines Day and so so so nice to spend that time together.

Jess With HAIR

So here's a picture of Jess with hair back in the day---10 years ago!  Wowza!

 He's been shaving it for like 9 years and loves it right. WELL, our awesome friends the Lindquists wanted to see what it would look like now if he grew it out for a month.  HA HA!--they bet him $100 for it.  Turns out the man Jess will do most anything for $100. So, he grew it out.  

Here is Jess and the boys watching the Super Bowl.  

It's the only picture I got of his hair.  

He wasn't so excited about the look :)  

Okay...He mostly hated it really really bad.

BUT...what he hates worse, is to back down from a dare.  

So....he grew out the ole cul-de-sac!  

It was so thick on the sides in the end....and we saw where he'll be graying first :)  Plus, it was really strange for him to use shampoo.  

He shaved it off on Valentines Day and it was SUCH a happy day for him.  

The Lindquists made awesome on the money and gave him $100 in one dollar bills :).  

As a thank you, he saved all the clippings and put them in a little jar with a bow and a sign that read, 

"$100 worth of Jess Winns hair" on it.

Front view

And as a side note--the boys were so cute watching the Super Bowl.  

On Saturday they all went and picked out their own drink, and their favorite chips. They had grapes and ice cream and just wow--they were so excited.  It was so cute to watch them with Jess.

PLUS, Kade's teacher, Mrs. Armstrong is a HUGE Giants fan. She taught the kids a bunch of stuff about both teams so they could make predictions (a skill they learn in 2nd grade :) so as Kade was sitting there he'd say stuff like, "Brady deserves that for how he's been playing on the field this season." or one time when he said something about Eli Manning and I asked him about it, he said,

 "Mom, you must not watch football." For real?  I was dying.  

Kade's First Pinewood Derby

So we officially have a cub scout in our family now.  Kade loves it. It helps too that Jess is one of his Wolf Den Leaders.  So each Tuesday the two boys are off to the church and Kade comes home with all sorts of smiles about hammering a nail into a board, or using a screwdriver, or trying to race the Den Leaders in a foot race.  

Kade's "money" car.  (quarters all along the bottom and pennies on top front. )

On Feb. 7th he got to enter into his first official Pinewood Derby Race. Woo Woo. He painted his car to look like a dragon.  I didn't know how much the thing weighed and we wanted to add weights so I totally took it to Wal-Mart and weighed it on their vegetable scales.  (cause I'm awesome like that :)  It was 4 oz. right....Well--when we got to the race it was only 2.75--turns out Wal-mart's ripping us off! ha ha! ANYWAY, we hot glued on tons of change and brought it up to 4.85 oz (max is 5 oz)  He loved racing his car.  And it may have helped that he won first in his Den, and 3rd overall....but he insisted the fun was in making it :) 

 All the kids awesome cars!

 So cute!  They were doing the law of the pack or something....

There were 4 cars racing for his den so this was the "race off" for the Den.

 Kade and his good friend Alex displaying their cars!

Kade getting his first badge--his Bobcat Badge from Bro. Norris--the Cub Master!  Our ward has such an awesome program. I'm so so glad about that!

Christmas Fun

Here's some clips from Kade's 2nd grade play.  He was so so so excited to be the part of "Marty the Moose"  It was adorable and totally made me cry. It's fuzzy cause apparently we don't have the right lens for our camera but it's super tender...I may have cried after his little singing solo a little bit...the end.

Lights of the South

 It's one of those places that sets up tons of lights of Christmas stuff, Disney stuff, American stuff...you know--the works. ANYWAY, it was lovely.  Not too cold--I had a coupon--and we went with friends.

 Here are the boys with Santa.

Rhett didn't want to leave Jess' arms to see Santa this year, but he did reach his hand out just far enough to get a candy cane "nandy" from him before we left.

We do a scavenger hunt each Christmas Eve with the boys for them to find their pajamas.  This year Jess did the clues and totally rocked it.  Turns out rhyming is just something that I'm challenged with--not everyone.  The boys loved it!

One of the clues almost always leads us to lunch--this year--Burger King.  The boys were sure that we'd gone there the night before to hide it--cause how oh how could it be in their happy meals???  I like them.

Christmas Morning 2011was awesome as usual. Kade woke everyone up at 6:04 (6:00 being the earliest).

Since Christmas fell on a Sunday this year, we had Sacrament at 10:00 and needed to leave by 9:15, so....we had warned the boys that we would only be seeing what Santa brought before church and we'd open gifts after.  At 6:05 when we were all ready to go and see Luke got really sad and wanted to open the presents too... So Cari made everyone stay on her and Jess' bed until Luke cheered up determined not to have a weepy child on Christmas morning (I can be a fun killer from time to time :). It only took about 30 seconds for him to decide waiting was okay and off we went!  YAY Chistmas Morning

Luke got an amazingly awesome electric train set from Santa that all of us have been playing with.  It was so nice to take the time to just play with a few toys at a time instead of seeing what was next!  Hooray for going to church!

Kade's big gift was his 3DS. Now why--when you have a regular DS, you need a new one, is beyond me entirely.  Jess was the responsible party on this one and it made Kade SOO happy.  I still think it's ridiculous--the other one was working just fine :)  But that's all he asked Santa for so...there you go.

happy happy happy.  

We are so insanely blessed and thankful for our heath, and family, and that Jess has a job!  And especially to have the Gospel of Jesus Christ and ALL that goes with it.  Life is great!

Kade's Baptism

Kade was baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on

Dec. 3rd, 2011 at 3:00.

We were so so blessed to have both mine and Jess' parents fly out for this event.  They are amazing and we're so grateful for them.

My mom and Jess' mom. They're so great!

Because they were both staying at hotels, the boys split up on Friday night and both got to spend the night with one set. They were SOOOOO excited. I can't express enough how much these boys love hotels. 

 They drew names and Luke went with my parents.  He got to watch a movie in his giant bed, get a ice cream sandwich from the hotel bar, and work out in the gym with grandma and grandpa in the morning (he was pretty excited to tell us that he could life a 10 lb dumb bell!)

 Kade apparently felt like a king in his giant bed just lying there watching cartoons with his Butterfinger (it's like grandparents know kids love sweets or something :)  They both LOVED being able to do this.  We all met up in the morning to go swimming together.  And the water was WARM!  woo woo for warm pools.  It was awesome.

 Yeah, so Luke is doing bunny ears in the family pictures...so that's nice.

Jess didn't go swimming with us because he was having too much fun taking the LSAT (the test they use to apply for Law School).  I was so glad the baptism was AFTER the big test.  Not to mention I was really glad he made it in time.  He's such a wonderful man! 

 Kaden had a joint baptism with such a great little girl named Ashley Viens.  They were so cute.  The first picture of them they were probably 5 feet apart and neither one wanted to move closer. So after much coaching...and lots of little kid funny squirming, we got them in the same picture.  It makes me laugh. 

 I heard an earful about how embarrassing it was from both of them on Saturday and Sunday.  They're sooo awesome!  (oh, and Kade's wearing his Spy Watch he got for his birthday. It's pretty much his favorite thing ever.  He wore it to the baptism, took it off to get baptized but put it back on for his confirmation.  He's funny :)

KADE'S EIGHT!

Kade turned 8 last week!  I'd say I can't believe he's that old already...but he's totally 8.  He's such a mature little man and I love his face off.  He LOVES his little brothers, he takes care of them so well.  This is my favorite quote from the other day:  

Kade: Luke will you go get me a piece of paper

Luke: No.

Kade: I'll let you sit on my head? 

(said with no humor--just in his--'here's the deal' voice)

Luke: Okay

(and out Luke comes down the hall to get some paper :)

HA! I love them!

Kade LOVES being in charge and having a challenge.  Nothing's too hard for him.  

He loves school.  He is awesome at creating things out of Legos.  His favorite color's red.  He's currently in love with Cup Stacking and practices whenever he gets a chance.  He has a Spy Notebook where he writes down all his spy-type idea's (like drawings of his future house, Ben 10 Aliens and their complete descriptions....other spy stuff :) And loves his Spy Watch he got for his birthday. (for real though--it's pretty cool :)  He loves learning and is ALWAYS teaching me things he's reading about.  (which is embarrassing cause...for real, he's still just 8- and I'm 29.)

We love you KADE! Our family is sooooo insanely blessed because you're in it!

 Birthday boy and Luke on his Birthday morning. 


We have a tradition of opening presents first thing in the morning  around here.  Jess had to leave at 6:00 so he got to start his birthday a little earlier then normal.

We only do friend birthday parties every 4 years, so Kade's been waiting awhile for this.  He had a lot of specifics (he loved his cousins birthday last year and wanted it modeled closely after it :)

 Spy Cake...

The kids sitting on the "laser chairs" (obstacle course)  about to play, 

"pop you're friends bomb before they explode..."  It was pretty intense :)

 This is all the kids with their
 "top secret" spy faces on.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KADE!

Racing, Rhyming and a Rocking Good Time

See the alliteration in that title--yup, that's how I roll with the cool kids :)

(video of Rhett's favorite song "popcorn popping", Kade at the carnival, Luke's poetry contest, racing Rhett jumping, and the boys rapping popcorn popping :)

So my friend Chelsea and I decided that since we were running (or rather--jogging) 2-3 miles a few times a week anyway,  that we should try and do a 5K (3.1 miles).  So we did last Saturday the 12th, and it was AWESOME!     A#1 it was such a beautiful morning, and the trees were all gorgeous and colorful, and we set a goal that was totally attainable so no stress.. But the funny part was once we got there, there were lot's of real runners.  Aka, lots of skinny legs and spandex, determined looks--not moms who occasionally run :)  Ha ha--everyone was running around the block and warming up their muscles (and their bodies...it was like 44 degrees so a bit nippy.)  So I know I'm not fast, but I just didn't want to be last...and we started to worry about that.  We may or may not have started picking out people that maybe we could stay in front of (sounds horrible I know but it made us feel better--we saw one lady with a double stroller and thought--her for sure--turns out she left the kids with a friend and was one of the fastest there--that'll teach me!)Here's the GREATEST part of the whole race though,        I ENJOYED MYSELF!  We had our music all set, our cheering section was there and we did better then we ever had before. We always practiced with our kids in the strollers and without them it was way easier!  We shaved off 4 minutes on race day. Good times, good times.

 (fixing my ipod)

My prego/'is she pregnant or just gaining weight' belly and our pretty pretty shirts.

Everyone in Lukes class had the choice to be in a poetry day or not.  He wanted to do the same poem Kade did when he was in kindergarten.             "I'm building a Rocket."                  Nailed it!  It was pretty long but this kids memory is a steel trap!  He rocked it and I loved watching him.  (it's in the video below :)

The 5 kids who participated.

We went to the county fair the 2nd week of November.  Kade's quite the dare devil!  He surprises me. I sooooooo wish I didn't get sick just watching rides--they look so fun.  It's not for me though.  We have the video of what this ride did.  It made me have flashbacks from when I was younger at the carnival in my home town.  It was before I knew that not everyone got that nasty horrible sick feeling, and just wanted to be brave.  I was on the same type ride and I remember trying soooo hard to smile but just hating every single second of it.  Then lying when I got off about how great it was.  Ahhh, silly Cari.  

I'm not sure if Kade enjoys it, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't get sick. So that's nice.

He for REAL is always wearing these boots.  This was him before Kade and Luke went to school one day. Pretty pretty pretty.

So i know there are some flaws--but how pretty is a little parsley and some cranberries? This is from our "Practice Thanksgiving" yum.....

All the Small Stuff

A groggy Kade at 4:00 a.m. after hearing Rhett yelling for 10 minutes: 

"Can you please get Garrett to go to sleep. I'm tired and I've got school in the morning.  Probably just have him sleep with you guys."

He turns 8 this FRIDAY!!!  AHHH--so so so crazy that I'm a mom of a beautiful amazing wonderful almost 8 year old.  He wants to be baptized and we couldn't be happier.  So  Dec. 3rd is the date. YAY!

He's doing great in school, and his favorite new past time is Speed Stacking.  He's good at it too.  

He's excited to be Marty the Moose in his 2nd grade "moosical" coming up and has all his lines memorized.  He's lost 8 teeth, and loves all things sugar (like his mom :)  

Discussing with Luke today the difference of how it feels to tell the truth and to lie.

"Telling the truth is like a warm feeling.  Lying is like throwing up from my heart."

His favorite color is green all the way.  He's been super concerned about fires and tornados lately and is very thankful every day in his prayers that they haven't affected him that day.

He tells everyone he's "allergic" to chocolate, but he isn't, he just doesn't like it. (which made for an AWESOME Halloween for me! woo woo)  

(Garrett's awesome smile that I love sooooo much!)

Rhett's update: 

He mostly eats fruit.  Just fruit.  Oh, and crackers.  Other then that he has like 3 things he'll even try.

He's started to be a little more daring with food, but only if we clap for him after each bite...it may be getting a little out of hand.  He'll hold up his fork and if no ones paying attention, he promptly puts it down and does a slow motion clap so we know what we're supposed to be doing instead of eating.

He's a silly one that Rhett.  He puts on Luke's cowboy boots all throughout the day and clomps around the house in them.  He gasps and smiles when something makes him happy.  He randomly laughs all the time.  He loves 'tickling' people or riding around the house on his daddy's leg.  Oh, and jumping on the tramp. He LOVES that.  He'll jump jump jump, then land on his bum...but he'll do it other places besides the tramp as well that don't work out quite as well...like the floor, or the Wal-mart grocery cart.  When he doesn't bounce back up he looks at me all confused.  He's a hoot!

Jess is a stallion! He's basically out of the military now and he started contracting for the government (doing kinda the same thing as before) Monday.  He's been studying for he LSAT with every spare second and has still been an amazing dad.  He's neat-o.  (his LSAT is the morning of  Kade's baptism day--so that's fun :)

He had the greatest idea for a 'Practice Thanksgiving' the other day! HA! So we totally made a turkey and had a bunch of friends over...just to you know--have a good practice run with all our favorite foods. AHHHH...I love Thanksgiving food.  (I'm proud to say I made my first turkey this year and it was sooo good and pretty!)

(love these boys)

I'm doing just swell.   A friend and I  ran a 5K last weekend and I LOVED IT.  Which is the coolest part.  I actually ENJOYED running--strange.

 Trying to cook healthier for the family, organizing a Christmas pageant with the primary soon (cute), excited to see my parents and Jess' for Kade's baptism, and just trying to figure out how life as a civilian works (paying for insurance--yuck!)

I'm 22 weeks prego, and feeling so great.  We get to find out TOMORROW what we're having! YAY!  I'm so so excited!  Neither of us has a 'preference', we're just excited to find out what we're having so we can start planning and picking out names!  YAY!

Life is busy and great and we're are incredibly blessed.  I mean for reals, Jess even agreed to family pictures! That's huge! :)

So, in an attempt to be a better journal keeper...but knowing I don't rock at that, I'm going to try and do better at blogging the small stuff. I know the world doesn't necessarily care about all the small Winn going-ons, but if I'm making an attempt to record some parts of our blessed life, I should try a little harder so it's a little more well-rounded.

That being said......I'm going to attempt to blog lots more about lots of stuff that may seem lame to the general population but FREAKEN AWESOME to us.  The end.  (just a little precursor for anyone who find our amazing QUALITY of blog going a little less quality and more quantity :)  blah!)

Halloween! 

We had a ward trunk-or-treat the Friday before Halloween.  It was raining SO hard, then we pulled into the parking lot..and nothing. It was a beautiful tender mercy (didn't want to clean up the building if we had to do it inside :)  Jess rocked his costume. I was a dog catcher (see...cause Rhett was a Dalmation?)

                             
I was just surprised that Rhett kept any costume on.  Anytime that boy sees a mask he starts to scream and cry.  Even when Jess wears his motorcycle helmet he backs into a corner and waits for him to put it away--THEN he runs up and gives him a hug.

This was Rhett's first year trick or treating. He was funny--and slow.  Just give that kid a lollipop though and he has no problems (well, except EXTREME STICKINESS)  The black nose was a last minute addition...it's a little rough--but you get the idea.

Kade kept saying all day how he was going to "maximize his candy potential" by starting early and going till he dropped.  ha ha--poor guy.  He was really dragged down by poor Rhett's speed.  BUT, after we did a chunk of houses, Luke was done, and Rhett needed a bath from all his sucker-ness so Jess kept going with Kade and he made out like a bandit. (translation--mom and dad made out like a bandit!  We've still got TONS left. :)                                          

 Luke wanted to be a dragon...again.  He's been a dragon or dinosaur 3 years out of 4 that he's been old enough to choose his costume.  He's funny. And really--he was a "poisonous dragon".  It's a pretty rad costume too.  It even has a button to make dragon noises!  fancy fancy.

Some good friends of ours, The Glovers moved a couple of weeks ago.  We went to a farewell party--they're awesome and will be missed!

How to Host a Murder!  

YAY!

Some friends of ours invited us to one the other day and it was sooooo fun!  

Jess was a famous chef, and I was a friendly doll designer.  Ha ha--get the mask with the doll reaching out to hug you?  Kinda creepy and AWESOME right?

It was seriously SUCH a funny night. I was laughing the entire time!
Great food, great fun, and great friends!


Since Jess was getting out we decided to go to one more Air Force Ball.  They're kinda boring, the food's always sub par, and Jess doesn't really like to dance...so there's not a huge draw to these things for us...but we went with some friends and I'm really glad we did.  I've LOVED our time in the Air Force!  It was a nice little hooray to say goodbye on.

Here's Rhett's 'special' smile I love so much!